Out of the 32 starting teams—eight apiece from the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and China—just two from each region are participating in the Mythic Dungeon Invitational Global Finals in Columbus, Ohio, beginning Friday, June 22 at 9:00 a.m. PDT. There is a $100,000 prize pool on the line and the top four finishers earn a spot in the MDI All-Stars exhibition at BlizzCon in November.

Witness the Birth of a Dynasty

Teams had six weeks to prepare for the finals by honing their skills, perfecting their routes, and studying their opponents. The reigning champions from the 2017 Mythic Dungeon Invitational, Free Marsy, are primed to repeat the events of last year’s triumph.

Free Marsy swept through the APAC region undefeated, but weren’t the only team with a blemish-free record. Perfect regular seasons will be major psychological weapons for both Method NA and Skyline.D—who didn’t drop a map playing in China, but will have to overcome a major deficit in their completion times if they want to remain competitive.

Since their healer couldn’t attend the event in Columbus, Free Marsy picked up Sups from Free Pumps. Sups stood out for his Restoration Druid “catweaving” skills, which nearly landed his team in the finals with Free Marsy. His reliable extra DPS may have been enough to clinch victory at the regionals, but Sups isn’t the only healer who’s proven himself to be a damage-dealing force. Method NA’s Jdotb, usually known for his top-level mage skills, crushed it as a Restoration Druid in his regional matches.

Underdogs from Above

It is no small feat to take out the top three seeded teams from your region. Kjell’s Angels became unlikely champions in the European regionals after defeating the favored Method EU and Raider.IO, and then holding off Method Pogchamp in their rematch at the EU finals.

With the changes to the tournament format, Kjell’s Angels will have ample opportunity to prove themselves to be something more than a fluke, but rather burgeoning masters of their craft.

Turn It Up to 25

Changes to the format include increasing the key level by one for each round, putting the finals at +25, increasing mob health, and increasing damage dealt by enemies from 896% to 985%.

Also, the third affix for each match is now set in advance, instead of being chosen by the losing team of the previous match in each series. To spice it up even more, affixes and map pools were shuffled, and previously excluded affixes were added to the available pool.

Learn more about the MDI Global Finals and the latest news here, and then catch all of the MDI Global Finals action in English on the official Warcraft Twitch channel with additional languages also available.